You might remember that the Sony Xperia ZL was first unveiled at CES earlier this year and it is indeed a flagship level device. As a quick run-through, you can expect to find a 5-inch 1080p display (441ppi) with the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, a quad core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a microSD slot, 13MP main camera, 2MP front-facing camera, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and all sorts of other juicy specs.
While it has a similar 5-inch 1080p display as some other competitors, like what you'd find on the Samsung Galaxy S 4, the Sony Xperia ZL is actually a fair bit more compact. They're saying it's the most compact 5-inch 1080p smartphone on the market today and they were able to achieve this by significantly shrinking the bezel around the screen itself.
It also comes with several unique dashes that Sony hopes will separate the ZL from the rest of the Android crowd. This is both from a hardware and from a software standpoint. For example, that 13MP camera is capable of shooting HDR video. It also has a burst mode that is limited only by your storage capacity; while testing out the demo unit, I hit a burst for about 170 photos at full resolution. The premium-feel aluminum power button is pretty unique-looking too, as is the STAMINA mode that can provide up to four-times the battery life.
The Sony Xperia ZL should be launching with the major carriers early next month, likely at the usual kind of price points on contract. We'll have a full review coming up soon too, but in the meantime, here's our interview and hands-on session with the Xperia ZL.
